Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Cincinnati's Great Disasters
    Cincinnati's Great Disasters
    Cincinnati's Great Disasters
    Ebook153 pages2 hours

    Cincinnati's Great Disasters

    By Betty Ann Smiddy, Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County

    4/5

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Cincinnati s Great Disasters explores catastrophes from 1905 to 1937, featuring floods, tornadoes, fires, explosions, winter storms, and crashes. Although tragic, disasters became popular postcard subjects in the early 1900s, with many of these photograph postcards being taken by professional photographers. The postcards documenting the 1907 and 1913 floods make up the bulk of this book, as these disasters dramatically affected Cincinnatians lives and led to innovative flood prevention planning and health initiatives. Flooding ultimately determined where businesses and residences were located in the city and was a driving force behind urban renewal of the riverfront.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArcadia Publishing
    Release dateJun 20, 2007
    ISBN9781439618899
    Cincinnati's Great Disasters
    Author

    Betty Ann Smiddy

    Betty Ann Smiddy has received outstanding achievement awards in local history from the Ohio Historical Society and the Hamilton County Recorder�s Office. Smiddy is a Cincinnati Enquirer Woman of the Year and was given a key to the city of Cincinnati for her volunteer activities. She is also the author of Cincinnati�s Golden Age. Smiddy has donated her royalties from this book to the Public Library of Cincinnati and Hamilton County Foundation.

    Related to Cincinnati's Great Disasters

    Related ebooks

    Photography For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Grave Business

      Sep 25, 2018

      Grave Business
      4 min read

    • Article

      Mouse Trap A Cheesy Classic

      Mar 9, 2023

      Mouse Trap A Cheesy Classic
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Year Of Two Thanksgivings

      Nov 1, 2022

      The Year Of Two Thanksgivings
      3 min read

    • Article

      ‘A Real Powder Burner’

      Feb 14, 2023

      ‘A Real Powder Burner’
      7 min read

    • Article

      Word Playing By Ear

      Jul 6, 2023

      Word Playing By Ear
      7 min read

    • Article

      Stamps Of The USA

      Aug 11, 2023

      Stamps Of The USA
      8 min read

    • Article

      News Junkies

      Apr 30, 2019

      News Junkies
      3 min read

    • Article

      Collecting Dead Presidents Heads, Grilles And Secret Marks

      Aug 14, 2020

      When the 1869 definitives were roundly rejected by the public, the USPS had to act quickly. The small-format pictorial stamps had been launched in March 1869. By February 1870, a new set was ready to replace them – and it would last in various guises

      6 min read

    • Article

      This Way Up

      Mar 13, 2020

      This Way Up
      7 min read

    • Article

      Posted In The Past

      Mar 8, 2022

      Posted In The Past
      5 min read

    • Article

      Standing Liberty Quarters 1916-1930

      Nov 11, 2022

      There is a long-standing belief in the numismatic community, which occasionally sees the light of day in print, that the Standing Liberty quarter of 1916-1917 created a fire storm of criticism and had to be redesigned. According to this legend, the t

      8 min read

    • Article

      Pelagic Postcards

      Jun 9, 2020

      Pelagic Postcards
      1 min read

    • Article

      The Jefferson Nickel

      Jun 25, 2020

      The Jefferson Nickel
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Draped Bust Coins of 1796-1807

      Jan 19, 2024

      In 1857, the government decided that the old copper cent had to be abandoned in favor of the new copper-nickel coinage. The rising price of copper in the early 1850s forced this change, and the public was presented with a smaller and far more useful

      8 min read

    • Article

      Interwar Photography

      May 5, 2020

      Interwar Photography
      4 min read

    • Article

      Rags To Honest Riches

      Mar 26, 2019

      Rags To Honest Riches
      3 min read

    • Article

      Defining Grant’s Legacy

      Jun 1, 2021

      Defining Grant’s Legacy
      2 min read

    • Article

      The 1938 Jefferson Nickel

      May 21, 2021

      The 1938 Jefferson Nickel
      8 min read

    • Article

      Pieces Of History: The Story Of Gee’s Bend

      Aug 4, 2021

      Quilts are what propelled the small community of Gee’s Bend into the headlines, so it is fitting their quilts tell the Gee’s Bend tale… Long before the quilts of Gee’s Bend hung in museums of Fine Art, the women of Boykin, Alabama were making quilt

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Perennial Favourite

      Feb 9, 2024

      There are dates that are extremely significant in philatelic history and 6 May 1840 is by far the most important one. On this day, the world’s very first adhesive postage stamp – the Penny Black – went on sale at post offices all over Great Britain.

      2 min read

    • Article

      Stamp Money of 20th Century America

      Mar 10, 2020

      This is the first of a four-part series with in-depth covering of a little-known aspect of American numismatics. As its name implies, an encased postage stamp consists of a casing of some kind with an ordinary postage stamp inside of it. Such an ins

      5 min read

    • Article

      What Is Your Favorite Historical Story Or Time Period Surrounding A Coin? Why?

      Nov 12, 2021

      I appreciate U.S. coins from the 19th and pre-WWII 20th centuries. The designs are generally more appealing to me. The diversity of varieties within a given category like Seated Liberty halves is a complex story. I also appreciate the palpable histor

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Invert With A Sad Tale To Tell

      Sep 9, 2022

      It might surprise a few of you to know that in the world of US philately some of the most popular stamps are from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition pictorial issue. These bi-colour stamps were produced to commemorate a world fair held at Buffalo, New

      5 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Cincinnati's Great Disasters

    4/5

    1 rating0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Cincinnati's Great Disasters - Betty Ann Smiddy

      County.

      INTRODUCTION

      Deltiology, or postcard collecting, has been a popular pastime for over a century. As a hobby, it has something for everyone, from exotic locales to individual holidays. Merchants have used them for advertising, regional recipes are always a hit, and some tell stories, poems, songs, or jokes. Buildings, art, cars, children, and greetings add more categories to collect. A small niche is local disaster photographs.

      Something seems special when you are sent a postcard. Better than a note, there is a feeling the picture was chosen especially for you and the short messages assure that you are remembered. Postcards bring smiles and are often kept. This accounts for the number of very old postcards that are found today in attics, antique stores, flea markets, and postcard shows.

      The first postcard where postage was affixed, rather than printed on the card by the government, was made in 1869 in Austria. The following year, postcards were being printed and mailed throughout Europe, which would dominate the postcard market until World War I.

      The popularity of the postcard in the United States can be dated from 1893, when the World’s Columbian Exposition was held in Chicago. These colorful cards were of the buildings and views of the exposition. Some were government printed with a penny stamp. Others that were privately printed were considered souvenir cards and needed a 2¢ stamp affixed before mailing. All bore messages written across the front because before March 1, 1907, it was illegal to use the back, except for the address. These cards had an undivided back.

      The earliest of this book’s postcards were black-and-white photographs printed on a postcard back. Postcards in color were usually printed in Europe, which had captured 75 percent of the market. German companies were the primary printers. Locally, Albert J. Kraemer and the Kraemer Art Company manufactured attractive postcards that were retouched and printed in Berlin. After March 1, 1907, postcards had a divided back, allowing for a longer message than what could fit on the front and made the photograph front more desirable. This launched postcard collecting as a major hobby, which lasted until World War I. Postcards were kept in special albums or displayed in a parlor wall rack. According to post office records, 677.8 million postcards were mailed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908. The United States population stood at 88.7 million at that time.

      Because of World War I, German lithography stopped; thus no more high-quality postcards were being manufactured. The American and English postcard industries were a poor second in quantity and quality. After the war, Germany’s printing industry did not recover. The United States then began to dominate the industry. The quality improved, but to save money, white borders were added. The hobby of collecting also declined; the telephone was the new way to send a message.

      The disaster postcards were made to memorialize an event, rather than send greetings. They eventually fell out of use because of advances in photography. The first photographic images printed were tintypes, followed by the carte de visite, which were popular during the Civil War. The latter used a glass negative and multiple copies could be made of a photograph. The big drawback to the glass negative was that it had to be developed by the photographer. The first handheld camera that used a roll of film was developed by George Eastman in 1888. The camera, with the film still inside, was sent back to the factory for development. The camera was returned with a new roll of film along with the developed prints. The negatives themselves were as large as three and a half inches by three and a half inches. In 1900, the Brownie camera was introduced, costing $1, and film was a dime a roll. While this sounds inexpensive, a loaf of bread at that time cost a penny and potatoes were 3¢ a pound.

      Newspapers relied on sketches for their papers until the halftone printing process was invented, which allowed photographs to be printed. The first photograph in the Cincinnati Enquirer was published on September 5, 1898, being of the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) encampment. At first the newspapers contracted professional photographers for their pictures, using mainly head shots to illustrate articles. Sometimes these same pictures were used for postcards. It was not until later that a staff photographer position was added.

      Newspaper clippings are fragile and many people bought postcards of an event as a way to remember it. It was years before the middle class could afford a camera, and when they could, disaster postcards were no longer made. In 1906, the folding pocket camera was developed. It changed the world of news by showing photographs of the great San Francisco earthquake. Average people, not only professionals, could photograph the world as they saw it. This new camera cost $5–$7. As time passed, the cameras and film both improved, the relative price declined, and ordinary folks now could shoot their own photographs, making disaster postcards obsolete.

      One

      WATER

      Front Street was located behind Water Street, the first street north of the river. Running east and west on Front Street, the gasworks was located west of Seventh Street near Rose Street and the waterworks was located parallel to Mount Adams. Near the waterworks was the Lexington and Nashville Railroad (L&N) depot. This area was crisscrossed

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1